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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or'Britain',4 is a sovereign state in Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, it includes the island of Great Britain—a term also applied loosely to refer to the whole country—the north-eastern part of the island ofIreland and many smaller islands.8 Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state—the Republic of Ireland.5 Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with theNorth Sea to its east, the English Channel to its south and the Celtic Sea to its south-southwest. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. The country has an area of 93,800 square miles (243,000 km2), making it the 80th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. The United Kingdom is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 64.5 million inhabitants.4 It is aconstitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance.910 Its capital city is London, an important global city and financial centre with an urban population of 10,310,000, the fourth-largest in Europe and second-largest in the European Union.11 The current monarch—since 6 February 1952—is Queen Elizabeth II. The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.12 The latter three have devolved administrations,13 each with varying powers,1415 based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. The nearby Isle of Man,Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the United Kingdom, being Crown dependencies with theBritish Government responsible for defence and international representation.16 The relationships among the countries of the United Kingdom have changed over time. Wales was annexed by theKingdom of England under the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1543. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the country, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.6 The UK has fourteen Overseas Territories.17 These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in thelanguage, culture, and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and tenth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. The UK is considered to have a high-income economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index, currently ranking 14th in the world. It was the world's first industrialisedcountry and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries.1819 The UK remains a great powerwith considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific, and political influence internationally.2021 It is a recognisednuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fifth or sixth in the world.2223 The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946. It has been a member state of theEuropean Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), since 1973; it is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum, the G20, NATO, theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Contents hide * 1Etymology and terminology * 2History ** 2.1Before 1707 ** 2.2Since the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1801 ** 2.31945–present * 3Geography ** 3.1Climate ** 3.2Administrative divisions * 4Dependencies * 5Politics ** 5.1Government ** 5.2Devolved administrations ** 5.3Law and criminal justice ** 5.4Foreign relations ** 5.5Military * 6Economy ** 6.1Science and technology ** 6.2Transport ** 6.3Energy ** 6.4Water supply and sanitation * 7Demographics ** 7.1Ethnic groups ** 7.2Languages ** 7.3Religion ** 7.4Migration ** 7.5Education ** 7.6Healthcare * 8Culture ** 8.1Literature ** 8.2Music ** 8.3Visual art ** 8.4Cinema ** 8.5Media ** 8.6Philosophy ** 8.7Sport ** 8.8Symbols * 9See also * 10Notes * 11References * 12 Further reading Etymology and terminology See also: Britain (place name) and Terminology of the British Isles The 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain", though the new state is also referred to in the Acts as the "Kingdom of Great Britain", "United Kingdom of Great Britain" and "United Kingdom".24257 However, the term "United Kingdom" is only found in informal use during the 18th century and the country was only occasionally referred to as the "United Kingdom of Great Britain"—its full official name, from 1707 to 1800, being merely Great Britain, without a "long form".2627282930 The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" was adopted following the independence of the Irish Free State, and the partition of Ireland, in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the UK.31 Although the United Kingdom, as a sovereign state, is a country, England, Scotland, Wales, and to a lesser degree, Northern Ireland, are also regarded as''countries'', though they are not sovereign states.3233 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government.3435 The British Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom.12 Some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the UK, also refer to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "regions".3637 Northern Ireland is also referred to as a "province".3839 With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences."40 The term Britain is often used as synonym for the United Kingdom. The term Great Britain, by contrast, refers conventionally to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination.414243 However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole.4445 GB''and ''GBR are the standard country codes for the United Kingdom (see ISO 3166-2 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3) and are consequently used by international organisations to refer to the United Kingdom. Additionally, the United Kingdom's Olympic team competes under the name "Great Britain" or "Team GB".4647 The adjective British is commonly used to refer to matters relating to the United Kingdom. The term has no definite legal connotation, but is used in law to refer to UK citizenship and matters to do with nationality.48 People of the United Kingdom use a number of different terms to describe their national identity and may identify themselves as being British; or as being English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, or Irish;49 or as being both.50 In 2006, a new design of British passport was introduced. Its first page shows the long form name of the state in English, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.51 In Welsh, the long form name of the state is "Teyrnas Unedig Prydain Fawr a Gogledd Iwerddon" with "Teyrnas Unedig" being used as a short form name on government websites.52 (However it is usually abbreviated to "DU" for the mutated form "Y Deyrnas Unedig".) In Scottish Gaelic, the long form is "Rìoghachd Aonaichte Bhreatainn is Èireann a Tuath" and the short form "Rìoghachd Aonaichte". History See also: History of the British Isles Before 1707 Main articles: History of England, History of Wales, History of Scotland, History of Ireland and History of the formation of the United Kingdom Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC. Settlement by anatomically modern humans of what was to become the United Kingdom occurred in waves beginning by about 30,000 years ago.53 By the end of the region's prehistoric period, the population is thought to have belonged, in the main, to a culture termed Insular Celtic, comprising Brythonic Britain and Gaelic Ireland.54 The Roman conquest, beginning in 43 AD, and the 400-year rule of southern Britain, was followed by an invasion by Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers, reducing the Brythonic area mainly to what was to become Wales and the historic Kingdom of Strathclyde.55 Most of the region settled by the Anglo-Saxons became unified as the Kingdom of England in the 10th century.56 Meanwhile, Gaelic-speakers in north west Britain (with connections to the north-east of Ireland and traditionally supposed to have migrated from there in the 5th century)5758 united with the Picts to create the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century.59 The Bayeux Tapestry depicts theBattle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it. In 1066, the Normans invaded England from France and after its conquest, seizedlarge parts of Wales, conquered much of Ireland and were invited to settle in Scotland, bringing to each country feudalism on the Northern French model andNorman-French culture.60 The Norman elites greatly influenced, but eventually assimilated with, each of the local cultures.61 Subsequent medieval English kings completed the conquest of Wales and made an unsuccessful attempt to annex Scotland. Following the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland maintained its independence, albeit in near-constant conflict with England. The English monarchs, through inheritance of substantial territories in France and claims to the French crown, were also heavily involved in conflicts in France, most notably the Hundred Years War, while the Kings of Scots were in an alliance with the French during this period.62 The early modern period saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country.63 Wales was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of England,64 and Ireland was constituted as a kingdom in personal union with the English crown.65 In what was to become Northern Ireland, the lands of the independent Catholic Gaelic nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland.66 In 1603, the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in a personal union when James VI, King of Scots, inherited the crowns of England and Ireland and moved his court from Edinburgh to London; each country nevertheless remained a separate political entity and retained its separate political, legal, and religious institutions.6768 In the mid-17th century, all three kingdoms were involved in a series of connected wars (including the English Civil War) which led to the temporary overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the short-lived unitary republic of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.6970 During the 17th and 18th centuries, British sailors were involved in acts of piracy (privateering), attacking and stealing from ships off the coast of Europe and the Caribbean.71 Although the monarchy was restored, the Interregnum ensured (with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689, and the Claim of Right Act 1689) that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail, and a professed Catholic could never accede to the throne. The British constitution would develop on the basis of constitutional monarchy and the parliamentary system.72 With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660, science was greatly encouraged. During this period, particularly in England, the development of naval power (and the interest in voyages of discovery) led to the acquisition and settlement of overseas colonies, particularly in North America.7374 Since the Acts of Union of 1707 and 1801 Main article: History of the United Kingdom The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain. On 1 May 1707, the united Kingdom of Great Britain came into being, the result of Acts of Union being passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to ratify the 1706 Treaty of Union and so unite the two kingdoms.757677 In the 18th century, cabinet government developed under Robert Walpole, in practice the first prime minister (1721–1742). A series of Jacobite Uprisings sought to remove the Protestant House of Hanover from the British throne and restore the Catholic House of Stuart. The Jacobites were finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish Highlanders were brutally suppressed. The British colonies in North America that broke away from Britain in the American War of Independence became the United States of America in 1783. British imperial ambition turned elsewhere, particularly to India.78 During the 18th century, Britain was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. British ships transported an estimated 2 million slaves from Africa to the West Indies before banning the trade in 1807, banning slavery in 1833, and taking a leading role in the movement to abolish slavery worldwide by pressing other nations to end their trade with a series of treaties, and then formed the world's oldest international human rights organisation, Anti-Slavery International, in London in 1839.798081 The term "United Kingdom" became official in 1801 when the parliaments of Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.82 The Battle of Waterloo marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the start of Pax Britannica. In the early 19th century, the British-led Industrial Revolution began to transform the country. It slowly led to a shift in political power away from the old Tory and Whig landowning classes towards the new industrialists. An alliance of merchants and industrialists with the Whigs would lead to a new party, the Liberals, with an ideology of free trade and laissez-faire. In 1832 Parliament passed the Great Reform Act, which began the transfer of political power from the aristocracy to the middle classes. In the countryside, enclosure of the land was driving small farmers out. Towns and cities began to swell with a new urban working class. Few ordinary workers had the vote, and they created their own organisations in the form of trade unions. After the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), the UK emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century (with London the largest city in the world from about 1830).83 Unchallenged at sea, British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace in Europe and the world (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman.84858687 By the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Britain was described as the "workshop of the world".88 The British Empire was expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such asAsia and Latin America.8990 Domestically, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies and a gradual widening of the voting franchise. During the century, the population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, causing significant social and economic stresses.91 To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, and elsewhere. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions.92 After the turn of the century, the UK's industrial monopoly was challenged by Germany and the United States. Social reform and home rule for Ireland were important domestic issues after 1900. The Labour Party emerged from an alliance of trade unions and small Socialist groups in 1900, and suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote before 1914. Infantry of the Royal Irish Riflesduring the Battle of the Somme. More than 885,000 British soldiers died on the battlefields of World War I. The UK fought with France, Russia and (after 1917) the US, against Germany and its allies in World War I (1914–18).93The UK armed forces were engaged across much of the British Empire and in several regions of Europe, particularly on theWestern front.94 The high fatalities of trench warfare caused the loss of much of a generation of men, with lasting social effects in the nation and a great disruption in the social order. After the war, the UK received the League of Nations mandate over a number of former German and Ottoman colonies. The British Empire reached its greatest extent, covering a fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of its population.95However, the UK had suffered 2.5 million casualties and finished the war with a huge national debt.94 The rise of Irish Nationalism and disputes within Ireland over the terms of Irish Home Rule led eventually to the partition of the island in 1921,96 and the Irish Free State became independent with Dominion status in 1922. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom.97 A wave of strikes in the mid-1920s culminated in the UK General Strike of 1926. The UK had still not recovered from the effects of the war when the Great Depression (1929–32) occurred. This led to considerable unemployment and hardship in the old industrial areas, as well as political and social unrest in the 1930s. A coalition government was formed in 1931.98 The UK entered World War II by declaring war on Germany in 1939, after it had invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia. In 1940, Winston Churchill became prime minister and head of a coalition government. Despite the defeat of its European allies in the first year of the war, the UK continued the fight alone against Germany. In 1940, the RAF defeated the German Luftwaffe in a struggle for control of the skies in the Battle of Britain. The UK suffered heavy bombing during the Blitz. There were also eventual hard-fought victories in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North Africa campaign and Burma campaign. UK forces played an important role in theNormandy landings of 1944, achieved with its ally the US. 1945–present Main articles: History of the United Kingdom (1945–present) and Postwar Britain Territories that were at one time part of the British Empire. Names of currentBritish Overseas Territories are underlined in red. After the end of World War II in 1945, the UK was one of the Big Four powers (the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and China) who met to plan the post-war world;99100 it was an original signatory to the Declaration of the United Nations. The UK became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. However, the war left the UK severely weakened and depending financially on the Marshall Plan.101 In the immediate post-war years, the Labour government initiated a radical programme of reforms, which had a significant effect on British society in the following decades.102 Major industries and public utilities were nationalised, a Welfare State was established, and a comprehensive, publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service, was created.103 The rise of nationalism in the colonies coincided with Britain's now much-diminished economic position, so that a policy of decolonisation was unavoidable. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947.104 Over the next three decades, most colonies of the British Empire gained their independence. Many became members of the Commonwealth of Nations.105 Although the UK was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal (with its first atomic bomb test in 1952), the new post-war limits of Britain's international role were illustrated by the Suez Crisis of 1956. The international spread of the English language ensured the continuing international influence of its literature andculture.106107 As a result of a shortage of workers in the 1950s, the UK government encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries. In the following decades, the UK became a more multi-ethnic society than before.108 Despite rising living standards in the late 1950s and 1960s, the UK's economic performance was not as successful as many of its competitors, such as West Germany and Japan. The UK entered the European Economic Community in 1973. In areferendum held in 1975, 67% of voters voted to remain in the EEC.109 In the decade-long process of European integration, the UK was a founding member of the alliance called Western European Union, established with the London and Paris Conferences in 1954. In 1960 the UK was one of the seven founding members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but in 1973 it left to join the European Economic Community (EEC). When the EEC became the European Union (EU) in 1992, the UK was one of the 12 founding members. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed in 2007, which forms the constitutional basis of the European Union since then. From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland suffered communal and paramilitary violence (sometimes affecting other parts of the UK) conventionally known as the Troubles. It is usually considered to have ended with the Belfast "Good Friday" Agreementof 1998.110111112 Following a period of widespread economic slowdown and industrial strife in the 1970s, the Conservative Government of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher initiated a radical policy of monetarism, deregulation, particularly of the financial sector (for example, Big Bang in 1986) and labour markets, the sale of state-owned companies (privatisation), and the withdrawal of subsidies to others.113 This resulted in high unemployment and social unrest, but ultimately also economic growth, particularly in the services sector. From 1984, the economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.114 Around the end of the 20th century there were major changes to the governance of the UK with the establishment of devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.115 The statutory incorporation followed acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK is still a key global player diplomatically and militarily. It plays leading roles in the EU, UN and NATO. However, controversy surrounds some of Britain's overseas military deployments, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.116 The 2008 global financial crisis severely affected the UK economy. The coalition government of 2010 introduced austerity measures intended to tackle the substantial public deficits which resulted.117 In 2014 the Scottish Government held a referendum on Scottish independence, with 55% of voters rejecting the independence proposal and opting to remain within the United Kingdom.118 Geography Main article: Geography of the United Kingdom The topography of the UK The total area of the United Kingdom is approximately 243,610 square kilometres (94,060 sq mi). The country occupies the major part of the British Isles119 archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the northeastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland and some smaller surrounding islands. It lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with the south-east coast coming within 22 miles (35 km) of the coast of northern France, from which it is separated by the English Channel.120 In 1993 10% of the UK was forested, 46% used for pastures and 25% cultivated for agriculture.121 The Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is the defining point of the Prime Meridian.122 The United Kingdom lies between latitudes 49° to 61° N, and longitudes 9° W to 2° E. Northern Ireland shares a 224-mile (360 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland.120 The coastline of Great Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long.123 It is connected tocontinental Europe by the Channel Tunnel, which at 31 miles (50 km) (24 miles (38 km) underwater) is the longest underwater tunnel in the world.124 England accounts for just over half of the total area of the UK, covering 130,395 square kilometres (50,350 sq mi).125 Most of the country consists of lowland terrain,121 with mountainous terrain north-west of the Tees-Exe line; including the Cumbrian Mountainsof the Lake District, the Pennines and limestone hills of the Peak District, Exmoor and Dartmoor. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike (978 metres (3,209 ft)) in the Lake District. Its principal rivers are the Severn, Thames, Humber, Tees, Tyne, Tweed, Avon, Exe and Mersey.121 Scotland accounts for just under a third of the total area of the UK, covering 78,772 square kilometres (30,410 sq mi)126 and including nearly eight hundredislands,127 predominantly west and north of the mainland; notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. The topography of Scotland is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault—a geological rock fracture—which traverses Scotland from Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east.128 The faultline separates two distinctively different regions; namely the Highlands to the north and west and the lowlands to the south and east. The more rugged Highland region contains the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including Ben Nevis which at 1,343 metres (4,406 ft) is the highest point in the British Isles.129 Lowland areas—especially the narrow waist of land between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth known as the Central Belt—are flatter and home to most of the population including Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and Edinburgh, its capital and political centre. Ben Nevis, in Scotland, is the highest point in the British Isles Wales accounts for less than a tenth of the total area of the UK, covering 20,779 square kilometres (8,020 sq mi).130 Wales is mostly mountainous, though South Wales is less mountainous than North and mid Wales. The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales, consisting of the coastal cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and the South Wales Valleys to their north. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia and include Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) which, at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft), is the highest peak in Wales.121 The 14, or possibly 15, Welsh mountains over 3,000 feet (914 m) high are known collectively as the Welsh 3000s. Wales has over 2,704 kilometres (1,680 miles) of coastline.123 Several islands lie off the Welsh mainland, the largest of which is Anglesey (Ynys Môn) in the northwest. Northern Ireland, separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea and North Channel, has an area of 14,160 square kilometres (5,470 sq mi) and is mostly hilly. It includes Lough Neagh which, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi), is the largest lake in the British Isles by area.131 The highest peak in Northern Ireland is Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains at 852 metres (2,795 ft).121 Climate Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round.120 The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below −11 °C(12 °F) or rising above 35 °C (95 °F).132 The prevailing wind is from the south-west and bears frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean,120although the eastern parts are mostly sheltered from this wind since the majority of the rain falls over the western regions the eastern parts are therefore the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters;133 especially in the west where winters are wet and even more so over high ground. Summers are warmest in the south-east of England, being closest to the European mainland, and coolest in the north. Heavy snowfall can occur in winter and early spring on high ground, and occasionally settles to great depth away from the hills. Administrative divisions Main article: Administrative geography of the United Kingdom England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland The four countries of the United Kingdom. Each country of the United Kingdom has its own system of administrative and geographic demarcation, whose origins often pre-date the formation of the United Kingdom. Thus there is "no common stratum of administrative unit encompassing the United Kingdom".134 Until the 19th century there was little change to those arrangements, but there has since been a constant evolution of role and function.135 Change did not occur in a uniform manner and the devolution of power over local government to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland means that future changes are also unlikely to be uniform. The organisation of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is the responsibility of the UK parliament and theGovernment of the United Kingdom, as England has no devolved parliament. The upper-tier subdivisions of Englandare the nine Government office regions or European Union government office regions.136 One region, Greater London, has had a directly elected assembly and mayor since 2000 following popular support for the proposal in areferendum.137 It was intended that other regions would also be given their own elected regional assemblies, but a proposed assembly in the North East region was rejected by a referendum in 2004.138 Below the regional tier, some parts of England have county councils and district councils and others have unitary authorities; while London consists of 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Councillors are elected by the first-past-the-post system in single-member wards or by the multi-member plurality system in multi-member wards.139 For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 council areas, with wide variation in both size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas, as is the Highland Council which includes a third of Scotland's area but only just over 200,000 people. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are currently 1,223;140 they are paid a part-time salary. Elections are conducted bysingle transferable vote in multi-member wards that elect either three or four councillors. Each council elects a Provost, or Convenor, to chair meetings of the council and to act as a figurehead for the area. Councillors are subject to a code of conduct enforced by the Standards Commission for Scotland.141 The representative association of Scotland's local authorities is the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).142 Local government in Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities. These include the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport which are unitary authorities in their own right.143 Elections are held every four years under the first-past-the-post system.143 The most recent elections were held in May 2012, except for the Isle of Anglesey. The Welsh Local Government Association represents the interests of local authorities in Wales.144 Local government in Northern Ireland has since 1973 been organised into 26 district councils, each elected by single transferable vote. Their powers are limited to services such as collecting waste, controlling dogs and maintaining parks and cemeteries.145 On 13 March 2008 the executive agreed on proposals to create 11 new councils and replace the present system.146 The next local elections were postponed until 2016 to facilitate this.147 Dependencies Main articles: British Overseas Territories, Crown dependencies and British Islands A view of the Caribbean Sea from the Cayman Islands, one of the world's foremost international financial centres148 and tourist destinations.149 The United Kingdom has sovereignty over seventeen territories which do not form part of the United Kingdom itself: fourteen British Overseas Territories17 and three Crown dependencies.17150 The fourteen British Overseas Territories are: Anguilla; Bermuda; the British Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; the Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; the Turks and Caicos Islands; the Pitcairn Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus.151 British claims in Antarctica are not universally recognised.152 Collectively Britain's overseas territories encompass an approximate land area of 1,727,570 square kilometres (667,018 sq mi) and a population of approximately 260,000 people.153 They are the remnants of the British Empire and several have specifically voted to remain British territories (Bermuda in 1995, Gibraltar in 2002 and the Falkland Islands in 2013).154 The Crown dependencies are possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the UK.155 They comprise three independently administered jurisdictions: the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and theIsle of Man in the Irish Sea. By mutual agreement, the British Government manages the islands' foreign affairs and defence and the UK Parliament has the authority to legislate on their behalf. However, internationally, they are regarded as "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible".156 The power to pass legislation affecting the islands ultimately rests with their own respective legislative assemblies, with the assent of the Crown (Privy Council or, in the case of the Isle of Man, in certain circumstances the Lieutenant-Governor).157 Since 2005 each Crown dependency has had a Chief Minister as its head of government.158 Politics Main articles: Politics of the United Kingdom, Monarchy of the United Kingdom and Elections in the United Kingdom Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and each of the other Commonwealth realms. The United Kingdom is a unitary state under a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state of the UK as well as monarch of fifteen other independent Commonwealth countries. The monarch has "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn".159 The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, including statutes, judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions.160 As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law", the UK Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.161 Government Main article: Government of the United Kingdom The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the world: a legacy of the British Empire. The parliament of the United Kingdom meets in the Palace of Westminster and has two houses: an electedHouse of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. All bills passed are given Royal Assent before becoming law. The position of prime minister,8 the UK's head of government,162 belongs to the person most likely to command the confidenceof the House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The prime minister chooses a cabinet and its members are formally appointed by the monarch to form Her Majesty's Government. By convention, the Queen respects the prime minister's decisions of government.163 The Palace of Westminster, seat of both houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the prime minister's party or coalition and mostly from the House of Commons but always from both legislative houses, the cabinet being responsible to both. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and cabinet, all of whom are sworn into the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, and become Ministers of the Crown. The current Prime Minister is David Cameron, who has been in office since 11 May 2010.164 Cameron is the leader of the Conservative Party. For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is currently divided into 650 constituencies,165 each electing a single member of parliament (MP) by simple plurality. General elections are called by the monarch when the prime minister so advises. Prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 required that a new election must be called no later than five years after the previous general election.166 The Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats (formerly as the Liberal Party) have, in modern times, been considered the UK's three major political parties,167 representing the British traditions of conservatism, socialism and social liberalism, respectively. However, at the 2015 general election, theScottish National Party became the third-largest party by number of seats won, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that contest elections only in one part of the UK: Plaid Cymru (Wales only); and the Democratic Unionist Party, Ulster Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland only9).168 In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Féin members of parliament have ever attended the House of Commons to speak on behalf of their constituents because of the requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the monarch.169 Devolved administrations Main articles: Devolution in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government and Welsh Government The Scottish Parliament Building inHolyrood is the seat of the Scottish Parliament. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own government or executive, led by a First Minister (or, in the case of Northern Ireland, a diarchal First Minister and deputy First Minister), and a devolved unicameral legislature. England, the largest country of the United Kingdom, has no such devolved executive or legislature and is administered and legislated for directly by the UK government and parliament on all issues. This situation has given rise to the so-called West Lothian question which concerns the fact that members of parliament from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can vote, sometimes decisively,170 on matters that only affect England.171 The McKay Commission reported on this matter in March 2013 recommending that laws affecting only England should need support from a majority of English members of parliament.172 The Scottish Government and Parliament have wide-ranging powers over any matter that has not been specifically reservedto the UK parliament, including education, healthcare, Scots law and local government.173 At the 2011 elections the Scottish National Party won re-election and achieved an overall majority in the Scottish parliament, with its leader, Alex Salmond, asFirst Minister of Scotland.174175 In 2012, the UK and Scottish governments signed the Edinburgh Agreement setting out the terms for a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, which was defeated 55% to 45%. The Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales have more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland.176 The Assembly is able to legislate on devolved matters through Acts of the Assembly, which require no prior consent from Westminster. The 2011 elections resulted in a minority Labour administration led by Carwyn Jones.177 The Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have powers similar to those devolved to Scotland. The Executive is led by a diarchy representing unionist andnationalist members of the Assembly. Currently, Peter Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) are First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively.178 Devolution to Northern Ireland is contingent on participation by the Northern Ireland administration in the North-South Ministerial Council, where the Northern Ireland Executive cooperates and develops joint and shared policies with the Government of Ireland. The British and Irish governments co-operate on non-devolved matters affecting Northern Ireland through the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which assumes the responsibilities of the Northern Ireland administration in the event of its non-operation. The UK does not have a codified constitution and constitutional matters are not among the powers devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly.179180 Indeed, in 1972, the UK Parliament unilaterally prorogued the Parliament of Northern Ireland, setting a precedent relevant to contemporary devolved institutions.181 In practice, it would be politically difficult for the UK Parliament to abolish devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, given the political entrenchment created by referendum decisions.182 The political constraints placed upon the UK Parliament's power to interfere with devolution in Northern Ireland are even greater than in relation to Scotland and Wales, given that devolution in Northern Ireland rests upon an international agreement with theGovernment of Ireland.183 Law and criminal justice Main article: Law of the United Kingdom The Royal Courts of Justice ofEngland and Wales The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system, as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system.184 Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law. A new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom came into being in October 2009 to replace theAppellate Committee of the House of Lords.185186 The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.187 Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles.188The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedentand common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (stare decisis).189 The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.190 The High Court of Justiciary—the supremecriminal court of Scotland. Scots law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases,191 and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.192 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law.193 Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court.194 The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.195 Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 66% in recorded crime from 1995 to 2015,196 according to crime statistics. The prison population of England and Wales has increased to 86,000, giving England and Wales the highest rate of incarceration in Western Europe at 148 per 100,000.197198 Her Majesty's Prison Service, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within England and Wales. The murder rate in England and Wales has stabilized in the first half of the 2010s with a murder rate around 1 per 100,000 which is half the peak in 2002 and similar to the rate in the 1980s.199 More sexual offences have been reported to the police since 2002.200201Crime in Scotland fell slightly in 2014/2015 to its lowest level in 39 years in with 59 killings for a murder rate of 1.1 per 100,000. Scotland's prisons are overcrowded but the prison population is shrinking.202 Foreign relations Main article: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of NATO, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum(previously the G8 forum), the G20, the OECD, the WTO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and is a member state of the European Union. The UK is said to have a "Special Relationship" with the United States and a close partnership with France—the "Entente cordiale"—and shares nuclear weapons technology with both countries.203204 The UK is also closely linked with the Republic of Ireland; the two countries share a Common Travel Area and co-operate through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council. Britain's global presence and influence is further amplified through its trading relations, foreign investments, official development assistance and military engagements.205 Military Troopers of the Blues and Royals during the 2007Trooping the Colourceremony Main article: British Armed Forces The armed forces of the United Kingdom—officially, Her Majesty's Armed Forces—consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force.206 The forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence and controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. TheCommander-in-Chief is the British monarch, Elizabeth II, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance.207 The Armed Forces are charged with protecting the UK and its overseas territories, promoting the UK's global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, as well as the Five Power Defence Arrangements, RIMPAC and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained in Ascension Island, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany,Gibraltar, Kenya, Qatar and Singapore.208209 The British armed forces played a key role in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout its unique history the British forces have seen action in a number of major wars, such as the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, World War I and World War II—as well as many colonial conflicts. By emerging victorious from such conflicts, Britain has often been able to decisively influence world events. Since the end of the British Empire, the UK has nonetheless remained a major military power. Following the end of the Cold War, defence policy has a stated assumption that "the most demanding operations" will be undertaken as part of a coalition.210 Setting aside the intervention in Sierra Leone, recent UK military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan,Iraq and, most recently, Libya, have followed this approach. The last time the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982. According to various sources, including the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United Kingdom has the fifth- or sixth-highest military expenditure in the world. Total defence spending currently accounts for around 2.4% of total national GDP.2223 Economy Main article: Economy of the United Kingdom The Bank of England—the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based The UK has a partially regulated market economy.211 Based on market exchange rates the UK is today the fifth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe after Germany. HM Treasury, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and is responsible for issuing notes and coins in the nation's currency, thepound sterling. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover their issue. Pound sterling is the world's third-largest reserve currency (after the US Dollar and the Euro).212 Since 1997 the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has been responsible for setting interest rates at the level necessary to achieve the overall inflation target for the economy that is set by the Chancellor each year.213 The UK service sector makes up around 73% of GDP.214 London is one of the three "command centres" of the global economy (alongside New York City and Tokyo),215 it is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York,216217218and it has the largest city GDP in Europe.219 Edinburgh is also one of the largest financial centres in Europe.220 Tourism is very important to the British economy and, with over 27 million tourists arriving in 2004, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world and London has the most international visitors of any city in the world.221222 The creative industries accounted for 7% GVA in 2005 and grew at an average of 6% per annum between 1997 and 2005.223 The Airbus A350 has its wings and engines manufactured in the UK. The Industrial Revolution started in the UK with an initial concentration on the textile industry,224 followed by other heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining and steelmaking.225226 British merchants, shippers and bankers developed overwhelming advantage over those of other nations allowing the UK to dominate international trade in the 19th century.227228 As other nations industrialised, coupled with economic decline after two world wars, the United Kingdom began to lose its competitive advantage and heavy industry declined, by degrees, throughout the 20th century. Manufacturing remains a significant part of the economy but accounted for only 16.7% of national output in 2003.229 The automotive industry is a significant part of the UK manufacturing sector and employs over 800,000 people, with a turnover of some £52 billion, generating £26.6 billion of exports. In 2008, the UK produced around 1.45 million passenger vehicles and 203,000 commercial vehicles. The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing and in 2008 around 3.16 million engines were produced in the country. The UK has a significant presence in auto racing and the UK motorsport industry currently employs around 38,500 people, comprises around 4,500 companies and has an annual turnover of around £6 billion.230 The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry in the world depending upon the method of measurement and has an annual turnover of around £25 billion. The wings for the Airbus A380 and the A350 XWB are designed and manufactured at Airbus UK's world-leading Broughton facility, whilst over a quarter of the value of the Boeing 787 comes from UK manufacturers including Eaton (fuel subsystem pumps), Messier-Bugatti-Dowty (the landing gear) and Rolls-Royce (the engines). Other key names include GKN Aerospace—an expert in metallic and composite aerostructures that's involved in almost every civil and military fixed and rotary wing aircraft in production and development today.231232233232234233234 BAE Systems plays a critical role in some of the world's biggest defence aerospace projects. The company makes large sections of the Typhoon Eurofighter at its sub-assembly plant in Salmesbury and assembles the aircraft for the RAF at its Warton Plant, near Preston. It is also a principal subcontractor on the F35 Joint Strike Fighter—the world's largest single defence project—for which it designs and manufactures a range of components including the aft fuselage, vertical and horizontal tail and wing tips and fuel system. As well as this it manufactures the Hawk, the world's most successful jet training aircraft.234 Airbus UK also manufactures the wings for the A400 m military transporter. Rolls-Royce, is the world's second-largest aero-engine manufacturer. Its engines power more than 30 types of commercial aircraft and it has more than 30,000 engines currently in service across both the civil and defence sectors. Rolls-Royce is forecast to have more than 50% of the widebody market share by 2016, ahead of General Electric.235 Agusta Westland designs and manufactures complete helicopters in the UK.234 The UK space industry is growing very fast. Worth £9.1bn in 2011 and employing 29,000 people, it is growing at a rate of some 7.5% annually, according to its umbrella organisation, the UK Space Agency. Government strategy is for the space industry to be a £40bn business for the UK by 2030, capturing a 10% share of the $250bn world market for commercial space technology.234 On 16 July 2013, the British government pledged £60 m to the Skylon project: this investment will provide support at a "crucial stage" to allow a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine to be built. On 2 November 2015, BAE Systems announced they have bought a 20% stake in Reaction Engines ltd. The working partnership will draw on BAE Systems' extensive aerospace technology development and project management expertise and will provide Reaction Engines with access to critical industrial, technical and capital resources to help progress the development of theSABRE engine.236 The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the UK economy and the country has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures (after the United States and Japan).237238 Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 1.6% of the labour force (535,000 workers).239 Around two-thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one-third to arable crops. Farmers are subsidised by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. The UK retains a significant, though much reduced fishing industry. It is also rich in a number of natural resources including coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica and an abundance of arable land.[citation needed] The City of London is one of the world's largestfinancial centres216217218 In the final quarter of 2008, as a result of the Great Recession, the UK economy officially entered recession for the first time since 1991.240 Unemployment increased from 5.2% in May 2008 to 7.6% in May 2009 and by January 2012 the unemployment rate among 18- to 24-year-olds had risen from 11.9% to 22.5%, the highest since current records began in 1992, although it had fallen to 14.2% by November 2015.241242243 Total UKgovernment debt rose quickly from 44.4% of GDP in 2007 to 82.9% of GDP in 2011, then increased more slowly to 87.5% of GDP in 2015.244245 Following the likes of the United States, France and many major economies, in February 2013, the UK lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 with Moodys and Fitch credit agency while, unlike the other major economies retained their triple A rating with the largest agency Standard & Poor's.246247 However, by the end of 2014, UK growth was the fastest in both the G7 and in Europe,248249and by September 2015, the unemployment rate was down to a seven-year low of 5.3%.250 As a direct result of the Great Recession between 2010 and the third quarter of 2012 wages in the UK fell by 3.2%251 but as of 2015, real wages are growing by 3%, having grown faster than inflation since 2014.252 Since the 1980s, UK economic inequality, like Canada, Australia and the United States has grown faster than in other developed countries.253254 The poverty line in the UK is commonly defined as being 60% of the median household income.10 In 2007–2008 13.5 million people, or 22% of the population, lived below this line. This is a higher level of relative poverty than all but four other EU members.255 In the same year 4.0 million children, 31% of the total, lived in households below the poverty line after housing costs were taken into account. This is a decrease of 400,000 children since 1998–1999.256 The UK imports 40% of its food supplies.257 The Office for National Statistics has estimated that in 2011, 14 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and that one person in 20 (5.1%) was now experiencing "severe material depression",258 up from 3 million people in 1977.259260 The UK has an external debt of $9.6 trillion dollars which is second highest in the world after the US which has an external debt of 18.5 trillion dollars. As a percentage of GDP, external debt is 408% which is third highest in the world after Luxembourg and Iceland.261262263264265 Science and technology Main article: Science and technology in the United Kingdom Charles Darwin (1809–82), whose theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation of modern biological sciences. England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century266 and the United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century,224 and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances.267 Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination ofgravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science;268 from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution bynatural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classicalelectromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who has advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.269 Major scientific discoveries from the 18th century include hydrogen by Henry Cavendish;270 from the 20th century penicillin byAlexander Fleming,271 and the structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others.272 Famous British engineers and inventors of the Industrial Revolution include James Watt, George Stephenson, Richard Arkwright, Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.273 Other major engineering projects and applications by people from the UK include the steam locomotive, developed byRichard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian;274 from the 19th century the electric motor by Michael Faraday, the incandescent light bulbby Joseph Swan,275 and the first practical telephone, patented by Alexander Graham Bell;276 and in the 20th century the world's first working television system by John Logie Baird and others,277 the jet engine by Frank Whittle, the basis of the modern computer by Alan Turing, and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.278 Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.279 Between 2004 and 2008 the UK produced 7% of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8% share of scientific citations, the third and second highest in the world (after the United States and China, respectively).280 Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.281 Transport Main article: Transport in the United Kingdom Heathrow Terminal 5 building.London Heathrow Airport has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world.282283 A radial road network totals 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads, 2,173 miles (3,497 km) of motorways and 213,750 miles (344,000 km) of paved roads.120 The M25, encircling London, is the largest and busiest bypass in the world.284 In 2009 there were a total of 34 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain.285 The UK has a railway network of 10,072 miles (16,209 km) in Great Britain and 189 miles (304 km) in Northern Ireland. Railways in Northern Ireland are operated by NI Railways, a subsidiary of state-owned Translink. In Great Britain, the British Rail network was privatised between 1994 and 1997. Network Rail owns and manages most of the fixed assets (tracks, signals etc.). About 20 privately owned Train Operating Companies operate passenger trains, which carried 1.65 billion passengers in 2014/15.286 There are also some 1,000 freight trains in daily operation.[when?]120 The UK government is to spend £30 billion on a new high-speed railway line, HS2, to be operational by 2026.287 Crossrail, under construction in London, Is Europe's largest construction project with a £15 billion projected cost.288289 In the year from October 2009 to September 2010 UK airports handled a total of 211.4 million passengers.290 In that period the three largest airports were London Heathrow Airport (65.6 million passengers), Gatwick Airport (31.5 million passengers) and London Stansted Airport (18.9 million passengers).290 London Heathrow Airport, located 15 miles (24 km) west of the capital, has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world282283 and is the hub for the UK flag carrier British Airways, as well as for BMI and Virgin Atlantic.291 Energy Main article: Energy in the United Kingdom An oil platform in the North Sea In 2006, the UK was the world's ninth-largest consumer of energy and the 15th-largest producer.292 The UK is home to a number of large energy companies, including two of the six oil and gas "supermajors"—BP and Royal Dutch Shell—and BG Group.293294 In 2011, 40% of the UK's electricity was produced by gas, 30% by coal, 19% by nuclear power and 4.2% by wind, hydro, biofuels and wastes.295 In 2013, the UK produced 914 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil and consumed 1,507 thousand bbl/d.296297Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of oil since 2005.298 In 2010 the UK had around 3.1 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest of any EU member state.298 In 2009, 66.5% of the UK's oil supply was imported.299 In 2009, the UK was the 13th-largest producer of natural gas in the world and the largest producer in the EU.300 Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of natural gas since 2004.300 In 2009, half of British gas was supplied from imports as domestic reserves are depleted.295 Coal production played a key role in the UK economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the mid-1970s, 130 million tonnes of coal was being produced annually, not falling below 100 million tonnes until the early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s the industry was scaled back considerably. In 2011, the UK produced 18.3 million tonnes of coal.301 In 2005 it had proven recoverable coal reserves of 171 million tons.301 The UK Coal Authority has stated there is a potential to produce between 7 billion tonnes and 16 billion tonnes of coal through underground coal gasification (UCG) or 'fracking',302 and that, based on current UK coal consumption, such reserves could last between 200 and 400 years.303 However, environmental and social concerns have been raised over chemicals getting into the water table and minor earthquakes damaging homes.304305 In the late 1990s, nuclear power plants contributed around 25% of total annual electricity generation in the UK, but this has gradually declined as old plants have been shut down and ageing-related problems affect plant availability. In 2012, the UK had 16 reactors normally generating about 19% of its electricity. All but one of the reactors will be retired by 2023. Unlike Germany and Japan, the UK intends to build a new generation of nuclear plants from about 2018.295 The total of all renewable electricity sources provided for 14.9% of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom in 2013,306 reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated. The UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest growing supply, in 2014 it generated 9.3% of the UK's total electricity.307308309 Water supply and sanitation Main article: Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom Access to improved water supply and sanitation in the UK is universal. It is estimated that 96.7% of households are connected to the sewer network.310 According to the Environment Agency, total water abstraction for public water supply in the UK was 16,406 megalitres per day in 2007.311 In England and Wales the economic regulator of water companies is the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). The Environment Agency is responsible for environmental regulation, and theDrinking Water Inspectorate for regulating drinking water quality. The economic water industry regulator in Scotland is the Water Industry Commission for Scotland and the environmental regulator is the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Drinking water standards and wastewater discharge standards in the UK, as in other countries of the European Union, are determined by the EU (see Water supply and sanitation in the European Union). In England and Wales water and sewerage services are provided by 10 private regional water and sewerage companies and 13 mostly smaller private "water only" companies. In Scotland water and sewerage services are provided by a single public company, Scottish Water. In Northern Ireland water and sewerage services are also provided by a single public entity, Northern Ireland Water. Demographics Main article: Demography of the United Kingdom Map of population density in the UK as at the 2011 census. A census is taken simultaneously in all parts of the UK every ten years.312 The Office for National Statistics is responsible for collecting data for England and Wales, the General Register Office for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency each being responsible for censuses in their respective countries.313 In the 2011 census the total population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775.314 It is the third-largest in the European Union, the fifth-largest in the Commonwealth and the 21st-largest in the world. In mid-2014 net long-term international migration contributed more to population growth, for the first time since mid-2011. In mid-2012 and mid-2013 natural change contributed the most to population growth.315 Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased by an average annual rate of approximately 0.7%.314 This compares to 0.3% per year in the period 1991 to 2001 and 0.2% in the decade 1981 to 1991.316 The 2011 census also confirmed that the proportion of the population aged 0–14 has nearly halved (31% in 1911 compared to 18 in 2011) and the proportion of older people aged 65 and over has more than tripled (from 5 to 16%).314 It has been estimated that the number of people aged 100 or over will rise steeply to reach over 626,000 by 2080.317 Atlantic Ocean Channel North Sea Celtic Sea Netherlands France Belgium Norway Ireland Glasgow Newcastle Leeds Birmingham London The largest cities in the UK by urban population. England's population in 2011 was found to be 53 million.318 It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 417 people resident per square kilometre in mid-2014.319 with a particular concentration in London and the south-east.320 The 2011 census put Scotland's population at 5.3 million,321 Wales at 3.06 million and Northern Ireland at 1.81 million.318 In percentage terms England has had the fastest growing population of any country of the UK in the period from 2001 to 2011, with an increase of 7.9%. In 2012 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was 1.92 children per woman.322 While a rising birth rate is contributing to current population growth, it remains considerably below the 'baby boom' peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964,323 below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63.322 In 2012, Scotland had the lowest TFR at only 1.67, followed by Wales at 1.88, England at 1.94, and Northern Ireland at 2.03.322 In 2011, 47.3% of births in the UK were to unmarried women.324 A government figure estimated that there are 3.6 million homosexual people in Britain comprising 6% of the population.325 Ethnic groups Main article: Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom Map showing the percentage of the population who are not white according to the 2011 census. Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be descended from the various ethnic groups that settled there before the 11th century: the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse and the Normans. Welsh people could be the oldest ethnic group in the UK.329 A 2006 genetic study shows that more than 50% of England's gene pool contains GermanicY chromosomes.330 Another 2005 genetic analysis indicates that "about 75% of the traceable ancestors of the modern British population had arrived in the British isles by about 6,200 years ago, at the start of the British Neolithic or Stone Age", and that the British broadly share a common ancestry with the Basque people.331332333 The UK has a history of small-scale non-white immigration, with Liverpool having the oldest Black population in the country dating back to at least the 1730s during the period of the African slave trade,334 and the oldest Chinesecommunity in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the 19th century.335 In 1950 there were probably fewer than 20,000 non-white residents in Britain, almost all born overseas.336 Since 1948 substantial immigration from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia has been a legacy of ties forged by theBritish Empire.337 Migration from new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe since 2004 has resulted in growth in these population groups, although some of this migration has been temporary.338 Since the 1990s, there has been substantial diversification of the immigrant population, with migrants to the UK coming from a much wider range of countries than previous waves, which tended to involve larger numbers of migrants coming from a relatively small number of countries.339340341 Academics have argued that the ethnicity categories employed in British national statistics, which were first introduced in the 1991 census, involve confusion between the concepts of ethnicity and race.342343 In 2011, 87.2% of the UK population identified themselves as white, meaning 12.8% of the UK population identify themselves as of one of number of ethnic minority groups.344 In the 2001 census, this figure was 7.9% of the UK population.345 Because of differences in the wording of the census forms used in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, data on the Other White group is not available for the UK as a whole, but in England and Wales this was the fastest growing group between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, increasing by 1.1 million (1.8 percentage points).346 Amongst groups for which comparable data is available for all parts of the UK level, there was considerable growth in the size of the Other Asian category, which increased from 0.4 to 1.4% of the population between 2001 and 2011.344345 There was also considerable growth in the Mixedcategory. In 2001, people in this category accounted for 1.2% of the UK population;345 by 2011, the proportion was 2%.344 Ethnic diversity varies significantly across the UK. 30.4% of London's population and 37.4% of Leicester's was estimated to be non-white in 2005,347348 whereas less than 5% of the populations of North East England, Wales and the South West were from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census.349 In 2011, 26.5% of primary and 22.2% of secondary pupils at state schools in England were members of an ethnic minority.350 Languages Main article: Languages of the United Kingdom The English-speaking world. Countries in dark blue have a majority of native speakers; countries where English is an official but not a majority language are shaded in light blue. English is one of the official languages of the European Union354 and the United Nations355 The UK's de facto official language is English.356357 It is estimated that 95% of the UK's population are monolingual English speakers.358 5.5% of the population are estimated to speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.358 South Asian languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Gujarati, are the largest grouping and are spoken by 2.7% of the UK population.358 According to the 2011 census, Polish has become the second-largest language spoken in England and has 546,000 speakers.359 Four Celtic languages are spoken in the UK: Welsh; Irish; Scottish Gaelic; and Cornish. All are recognised as regional or minority languages, subject to specific measures of protection and promotion under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages2360 and theFramework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.361 In the 2001 Census over a fifth (21%) of the population of Wales said they could speak Welsh,362 an increase from the 1991 Census (18%).363 In addition it is estimated that about 200,000 Welsh speakers live in England.364 In the same census in Northern Ireland 167,487 people (10.4%) stated that they had "some knowledge of Irish" (see Irish language in Northern Ireland), almost exclusively in thenationalist (mainly Catholic) population. Over 92,000 people in Scotland (just under 2% of the population) had some Gaelic language ability, including 72% of those living in the Outer Hebrides.365 The number of schoolchildren being taught through Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish is increasing.366 Among emigrant-descended populations some Scottish Gaelic is still spoken in Canada (principally Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island),367 and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.368 Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, has limited recognition alongside its regional variant, Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, without specific commitments to protection and promotion.2369 It is compulsory for pupils to study a second language up to the age of 14 in England,370 and up to age 16 in Scotland. French and German are the two most commonly taught second languages in England and Scotland. All pupils in Wales are taught Welsh as a second language up to age 16, or are taught in Welsh.371 Religion Main article: Religion in the United Kingdom Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of British monarchs Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years.372 Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in many surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century,373 while immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths, most notably Islam.374This has led some commentators to variously describe the UK as a multi-faith,375 secularised,376 or post-Christian society.377 In the 2001 census 71.6% of all respondents indicated that they were Christians, with the next largest faiths (by number of adherents) being Islam (2.8%), Hinduism (1.0%), Sikhism (0.6%), Judaism (0.5%), Buddhism (0.3%) and all other religions (0.3%).378 15% of respondents stated that they had no religion, with a further 7% not stating a religious preference.379 A Tearfundsurvey in 2007 showed only one in ten Britons actually attend church weekly.380 Between the 2001 and 2011 census there was a decrease in the amount of people who identified as Christian by 12%, whilst the percentage of those reporting no religious affiliation doubled. This contrasted with growth in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing by the most substantial margin to a total of about 5%.381 The Muslim population has increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011,382 making it the second-largest religion group in the United Kingdom.383 In a 2015 survey conducted by BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 49% of respondents indicated 'no religion', while 42% indicated they were Christians, followed by 8% who affiliated with other religions (e.g. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism etc.).384 The Church of England is the established church in England.385 It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor.386 In Scotland the Presbyterian Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession.387388 The (Anglican) Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the (Anglican) Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before thepartition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland.389 Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, it has been estimated that 62% of Christians are Anglican, 13.5% Catholic, 6% Presbyterian, 3.4% Methodist with small numbers of other Protestant denominations such as Open Brethren, and Orthodox churches.390 Migration Main article: Modern immigration to the United Kingdom See also: Foreign-born population of the United Kingdom Estimated foreign-born population by country of birth, April 2007 – March 2008 The United Kingdom has experienced successive waves of migration. The Great Famine in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, resulted in perhaps a million people migrating to Great Britain.391 Unable to return to Poland at the end of World War II, over 120,000 Polish veterans remained in the UK permanently.392 After World War II, there was significant immigration from the colonies and newly independent former colonies, partly as a legacy of empire and partly driven by labour shortages. Many of these migrants came from the Caribbeanand the Indian subcontinent.393 In 1841, 0.25% of the population of England and Wales was born in a foreign country. By 1931, this figure had risen to 2.6%, and by 1951 it was 4.4%.394 In 2014 the net increase was 318,000: immigration was 641,000, up from 526,000 in 2013, while the number of people emigrating (for more than 12 months) was 323,000.395 One of the more recent trends in migration has been the arrival of workers from the new EU member states in Eastern Europe, known as the A8 countries.338In 2010, there were 7.0 million foreign-born residents in the UK, corresponding to 11.3% of the total population. Of these, 4.76 million (7.7%) were born outside the EU and 2.24 million (3.6%) were born in another EU Member State.396 The proportion of foreign-born people in the UK remains slightly below that of many other European countries.397 However, immigration is now contributing to a rising population398 with arrivals and UK-born children of migrants accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. Analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that a net total of 2.3 million migrants moved to the UK in the 15 years from 1991 to 2006.399400 In 2008 it was predicted that migration would add 7 million to the UK population by 2031,401 though these figures are disputed.402 The ONS reported that net migration rose from 2009 to 2010 by 21% to 239,000.403 In 2013, approximately 208,000 foreign citizens were naturalised as British citizens, the highest number since records began in 1962. This figure fell to around 125,800 in 2014. Between 2009 and 2013, the average number of people granted British citizenship per year was 195,800. The main countries of previous nationality of those naturalised in 2014 were India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, South Africa, Poland and Somalia.404 The total number of grants of settlement, which confers permanent residence in the UK without granting British citizenship,405 was approximately 154,700 in 2013, compared to 241,200 in 2010 and 129,800 in 2012.404 Over a quarter (27.0%) of live births in 2014 were to mothers born outside the UK, according to official statistics released in 2015.406 Citizens of the European Union, including those of the UK, have the right to live and work in any EU member state.407 The UK applied temporary restrictions to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007.408 Research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute for the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that, between May 2004 and September 2009, 1.5 million workers migrated from the new EU member states to the UK, two-thirds of them Polish, but that many subsequently returned home, resulting in a net increase in the number of nationals of the new member states in the UK of some 700,000 over that period.409410 The late-2000s recession in the UK reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK,411 the migration becoming temporary and circular.412 In 2009, for the first time since enlargement, more nationals of the eight central and eastern European states that had joined the EU in 2004 left the UK than arrived.413 In 2011, citizens of the new EU member states made up 13% of the immigrants entering the country.414 Estimated number of British citizens living overseas by country, 2006 The UK government has introduced a points-based immigration system for immigration from outside theEuropean Economic Area to replace former schemes, including the Scottish Government's Fresh Talent Initiative.415 In June 2010 the UK government introduced a temporary limit of 24,000 on immigration from outside the EU, aiming to discourage applications before a permanent cap was imposed in April 2011.416 The cap has caused tension within the coalition: business secretary Vince Cable has argued that it is harming British businesses.417 Emigration was an important feature of British society in the 19th century. Between 1815 and 1930 around 11.4 million people emigrated from Britain and 7.3 million from Ireland. Estimates show that by the end of the 20th century some 300 million people of British and Irish descent were permanently settled around the globe.418 Today, at least 5.5 million UK-born people live abroad,419420421 mainly in Australia, Spain, the United States and Canada.419422 Education Main article: Education in the United Kingdom See also: Education in England, Education in Northern Ireland, Education in Scotland and Education in Wales King's College, part of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209 Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with each country having a separate education system. About 38 percent of United Kingdom population has a university or college degree, which is the highest percentages in the Europe, and among the highest percentages in World.423424 Whilst education in England is the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Education, the day-to-day administration and funding of state schools is the responsibility of local authorities.425 Universally free of charge state education was introduced piecemeal between 1870 and 1944.426427 Education is now mandatory from ages five to sixteen (15 if born in late July or August). In 2011, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rated 13–14-year-old pupils in England and Wales 10th in the world for maths and 9th for science.428 The majority of children are educated in state-sector schools, a small proportion of which select on the grounds of academic ability. Two of the top ten performing schools in terms of GCSE results in 2006 were state-run grammar schools. Over half of students at the leading universities of Cambridge and Oxford had attended state schools.429 Despite a fall in actual numbers the proportion of children in England attending private schools has risen to over 7%.430 In 2010, more than 45% of places at the University of Oxford and 40% at the University of Cambridge were taken by students from private schools, even though they educate just 7% of the population.431 England has the two oldest universities in English-speaking world, Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (jointly known as "Oxbridge") with history of over eight centuries. The United Kingdom trails only the United States in terms of representation on lists of top 100 universities.432433434435 Queen's University Belfast, built in 1849436 Education in Scotland is the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, with day-to-day administration and funding of state schools the responsibility of Local Authorities. Two non-departmental public bodies have key roles in Scottish education. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications other than degrees which are delivered at secondary schools, post-secondarycolleges of further education and other centres.437 The Learning and Teaching Scotland provides advice, resources and staff development to education professionals.438 Scotland first legislated for compulsory education in 1496.439 The proportion of children in Scotland attending private schools is just over 4%, and it has been rising slowly in recent years.440Scottish students who attend Scottish universities pay neither tuition fees nor graduate endowment charges, as fees were abolished in 2001 and the graduate endowment scheme was abolished in 2008.441 The Welsh Government has responsibility for education in Wales. A significant number of Welsh students are taught either wholly or largely in the Welsh language; lessons in Welsh are compulsory for all until the age of 16.442 There are plans to increase the provision of Welsh-medium schools as part of the policy of creating a fully bilingual Wales. Education in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Minister of Education and the Minister for Employment and Learning, although responsibility at a local level is administered by five education and library boards covering different geographical areas. The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment (CCEA) is the body responsible for advising the government on what should be taught in Northern Ireland's schools, monitoring standards and awarding qualifications.443 A government commission's report in 2014 found that privately educated people comprise 7% of the general population of the UK but much larger percentages of the top professions, the most extreme case quoted being 71% of senior judges.444445 Healthcare Main article: Healthcare in the United Kingdom The Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, an NHS Scotland specialistchildren's hospital Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter and each country has its own system of private and publicly funded health care, together with alternative, holistic and complementary treatments. Public healthcare is provided to all UK permanent residents and is mostly free at the point of need, being paid for from general taxation. The World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom as fifteenth best in Europe and eighteenth in the world.446447 Regulatory bodies are organised on a UK-wide basis such as the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and non-governmental-based, such as the Royal Colleges. However, political and operational responsibility for healthcare lies with four national executives; healthcare in England is the responsibility of the UK Government; healthcare in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive; healthcare in Scotland is the responsibility of theScottish Government; and healthcare in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Assembly Government. Each National Health Service has different policies and priorities, resulting in contrasts.448449 Since 1979 expenditure on healthcare has been increased significantly to bring it closer to the European Union average.450The UK spends around 8.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, which is 0.5 percentage points below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average and about one percentage point below the average of the European Union.451 Culture Main article: Culture of the United Kingdom The culture of the United Kingdom has been influenced by many factors including: the nation's island status; its history as a western liberal democracy and a major power; as well as being a political union of four countries with each preserving elements of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism. As a result of the British Empire, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the United States. The substantial cultural influence of the United Kingdom has led it to be described as a "cultural superpower".106107 Literature Main article: British literature The Chandos portrait, believed to depict William Shakespeare 'British literature' refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Most British literature is in the English language. In 2005, some 206,000 books were published in the United Kingdom and in 2006 it was thelargest publisher of books in the world.452 The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time,453454455 and his contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson have also been held in continuous high esteem. More recently the playwrightsAlan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism. Notable pre-modern and early-modern English writers include Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century), Thomas Malory (15th century), Sir Thomas More (16th century), John Bunyan (17th century) and John Milton (17th century). In the 18th century Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) and Samuel Richardson were pioneers of the modern novel. In the 19th century there followed further innovation by Jane Austen, the gothic novelist Mary Shelley, the children's writer Lewis Carroll, the Brontë sisters, the social campaigner Charles Dickens, the naturalist Thomas Hardy, the realist George Eliot, the visionary poet William Blake and romantic poet William Wordsworth. 20th century English writers include the science-fiction novelist H. G. Wells; the writers of children's classics Rudyard Kipling, A. A. Milne (the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh), Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton; the controversial D. H. Lawrence; the modernist Virginia Woolf; the satirist Evelyn Waugh; the prophetic novelist George Orwell; the popular novelists W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene; the crime writer Agatha Christie (the best-selling novelist of all time);456 Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond); the poets T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes; the fantasy writers J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling; the graphic novelists Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. A photograph of Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens Scotland's contributions include the detective writer Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), romantic literature by Sir Walter Scott, the children's writer J. M. Barrie, the epic adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and the celebrated poet Robert Burns. More recently the modernist and nationalist Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn contributed to the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's stories and the psychological horror-comedy of Iain Banks. Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, was UNESCO's first worldwide City of Literature.457 Britain's oldest known poem, Y Gododdin, was composed in Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North), most likely in the late 6th century. It was written in Cumbric or Old Welsh and contains the earliest known reference to King Arthur.458 From around the seventh century, the connection between Wales and the Old North was lost, and the focus of Welsh-language culture shifted to Wales, where Arthurian legend was further developed by Geoffrey of Monmouth.459 Wales's most celebrated medieval poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym(fl.''1320–1370), composed poetry on themes including nature, religion and especially love. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest European poets of his age.460 Until the late 19th century the majority of Welsh literature was in Welsh and much of the prose was religious in character. Daniel Owen is credited as the first Welsh-language novelist, publishing ''Rhys Lewis in 1885. The best-known of the Anglo-Welsh poets are both Thomases. Dylan Thomas became famous on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-20th century. He is remembered for his poetry—his "Do not go gentle into that good night; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" is one of the most quoted couplets of English language verse—and for his "play for voices", Under Milk Wood. The influential Church in Wales "poet-priest" and Welsh nationalist R. S. Thomas was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Leading Welsh novelists of the twentieth century include Richard Llewellyn and Kate Roberts.461462 Authors of other nationalities, particularly from Commonwealth countries, the Republic of Ireland and the United States, have lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and more recently British authors born abroad such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Sir Salman Rushdie.463464 Music Main article: Music of the United Kingdom See also: British rock The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in popular music, selling over a billion records.465466467 Various styles of music are popular in the UK from the indigenous folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland toheavy metal. Notable composers of classical music from the United Kingdom and the countries that preceded it include William Byrd,Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with the librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, pioneer of modern British opera. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the foremost living composers. The UK is also home to world-renowned symphonic orchestras and choruses such as the BBC Symphony Orchestraand the London Symphony Chorus. Notable conductors include Sir Simon Rattle, John Barbirolli and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Some of the notable film score composers include John Barry, Clint Mansell, Mike Oldfield, John Powell, Craig Armstrong, David Arnold, John Murphy, Monty Norman and Harry Gregson-Williams. George Frideric Handel became a naturalised British citizen and wrote the British coronation anthem, while some of his best works, such as Messiah, were written in the English language.468469 Andrew Lloyd Webber is a prolific composer of musical theatre. His works have dominated London's West End since the late 20th century and have also been a commercial success worldwide.470 The Beatles have international sales of over one billion units and are the biggest-selling and most influential band in the history of popular music.465466467471 Other prominent British contributors to have influenced popular music over the last 50 years include;The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, the Bee Gees, and Elton John, all of whom have worldwide record sales of 200 million or more.472473474475476477 The Brit Awards are the BPI's annual music awards, and some of the British recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award include; The Who, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and The Police.478 More recent UK music acts that have had international success includeColdplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse and Adele.479 A number of UK cities are known for their music. Acts from Liverpool have had more UK chart number one hit singles per capita (54) than any other city worldwide.480 Glasgow's contribution to music was recognised in 2008 when it was named a UNESCO City of Music, one of only three cities in the world to have this honour.481 Visual art Main article: Art of the United Kingdom J. M. W. Turner self-portrait, oil on canvas, c. 1799 The history of British visual art forms part of western art history. Major British artists include: the Romantics William Blake, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and J.M.W. Turner; the portrait painters Sir Joshua Reynolds and Lucian Freud; the landscape artistsThomas Gainsborough and L. S. Lowry; the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Movement William Morris; the figurative painter Francis Bacon; the Pop artists Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney; the collaborative duo Gilbert and George; the abstractartist Howard Hodgkin; and the sculptors Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore. During the late 1980s and 1990s theSaatchi Gallery in London helped to bring to public attention a group of multi-genre artists who would become known as the "Young British Artists": Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood and the Chapman Brothers are among the better-known members of this loosely affiliated movement. The Royal Academy in London is a key organisation for the promotion of the visual arts in the United Kingdom. Major schools of art in the UK include: the six-school University of the Arts London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Designand Chelsea College of Art and Design; Goldsmiths, University of London; the Slade School of Fine Art (part of University College London); the Glasgow School of Art; the Royal College of Art; and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (part of the University of Oxford). The Courtauld Institute of Art is a leading centre for the teaching of the history of art. Important art galleries in the United Kingdom include the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern (the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year).482 Cinema Main article: Cinema of the United Kingdom Alfred Hitchcock is often ranked the greatest British filmmaker.483 The United Kingdom has had a considerable influence on the history of the cinema. The British directors Alfred Hitchcock, whose film Vertigo is considered by some critics as the best film of all time,484 and David Lean are among the most critically acclaimed of all-time.485 Other important directors including Charlie Chaplin,486 Michael Powell,487 Carol Reed488 and Ridley Scott.489 Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including: Julie Andrews,490 Richard Burton,491 Michael Caine,492 Charlie Chaplin,493 Sean Connery,494 Vivien Leigh,495 David Niven,496 Laurence Olivier,497 Peter Sellers,498 Kate Winslet,499 Anthony Hopkins,500 and Daniel Day-Lewis.501 Some of the most commercially successful films of all time have been produced in the United Kingdom, including two of the highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).502 Ealing Studios has a claim to being the oldest continuously working film studio in the world.503 Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry has often been characterised by a debate about its identity and the level of American and European influence. British producers are active in international co-productions and British actors, directors and crew feature regularly in American films. Many successful Hollywood films have been based on British people, storiesor events, including Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom.504 UK box-office takings totalled £944 million in 2009, with around 173 million admissions.504 The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking of what it considers to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films.505 The annual British Academy Film Awards are hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.506 Media Main article: Media of the United Kingdom Broadcasting House in London, headquarters of theBBC, the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world.507508509 The BBC, founded in 1922, is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and Internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world.507508509 It operates numerous television and radio stations in the UK and abroad and its domestic services are funded by the television licence.510511 Other major players in the UK media include ITV plc, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network,512 and News Corporation, which owns a number of national newspapers through News International such as the most popular tabloid The Sun and the longest-established daily "broadsheet" The Times,513 as well as holding a large stake in satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.514 London dominates the media sector in the UK: national newspapers and television and radio are largely based there, although Manchester is also a significant national media centre. Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Cardiff, are important centres of newspaper and broadcasting production in Scotland and Wales respectively.515 The UK publishing sector, including books, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people.516 In 2009, it was estimated that individuals viewed a mean of 3.75 hours of television per day and 2.81 hours of radio. In that year the main BBC public service broadcasting channels accounted for an estimated 28.4% of all television viewing; the three main independent channels accounted for 29.5% and the increasingly important other satellite and digital channels for the remaining 42.1%.517 Sales of newspapers have fallen since the 1970s and in 2010 41% of people reported reading a daily national newspaper.518 In 2010, 82.5% of the UK population were Internet users, the highest proportion amongst the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.519 Philosophy Main article: British philosophy The United Kingdom is famous for the tradition of 'British Empiricism', a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid, and 'Scottish Philosophy', sometimes referred to as the 'Scottish School of Common Sense'.520 The most famous philosophers of British Empiricism are John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume; while Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid and William Hamilton were major exponents of the Scottish "common sense" school. Two Britons are also notable for a theory of moral philosophy utilitarianism, first used by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill in his short work Utilitarianism.521522 Other eminent philosophers from the UK and the unions and countries that preceded it include Duns Scotus, John Lilburne,Mary Wollstonecraft, Sir Francis Bacon, Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, William of Ockham, Bertrand Russell and A.J. "Freddie" Ayer. Foreign-born philosophers who settled in the UK include Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx, Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Sport Main article: Sport in the United Kingdom Wembley Stadium, London, home of the England national football team, is one of the most expensive stadia ever built.523 Major sports, including association football, tennis, rugby union, rugby league, golf, boxing, rowing and cricket, originated or were substantially developed in the UK and the states that preceded it. With the rules and codes of many modern sports invented and codified in late 19th century Victorian Britain, in 2012, the President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, stated; "This great, sports-loving country is widely recognized as the birthplace of modern sport. It was here that the concepts of sportsmanship and fair play were first codified into clear rules and regulations. It was here that sport was included as an educational tool in the school curriculum".524525 In most international competitions, separate teams represent England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland usually field a single team representing all of Ireland, with notable exceptions being association football and the Commonwealth Games. In sporting contexts, the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish / Northern Irish teams are often referred to collectively as the Home Nations. There are some sports in which a single team represents the whole of United Kingdom, including the Olympics, where the UK is represented by the Great Britain team. The 1908, 1948 and 2012Summer Olympics were held in London, making it the first city to host the games three times. Britain has participated in every modern Olympic Games to date and is third in the medal count. A 2003 poll found that football is the most popular sport in the United Kingdom.526 England is recognised by FIFA as the birthplace of club football, and The Football Association is the oldest of its kind, with the rules of football first drafted in 1863 by Ebenezer Cobb Morley.527528 Each of the Home Nations has its own football association, national team and league system. The English top division, the Premier League, is the most watched football league in the world.529 The first-ever international football match was contested by England and Scotland on 30 November 1872.530 England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as separate countries in international competitions.531 A Great Britain Olympic football team was assembled for the first time to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games. However, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish football associations declined to participate, fearing that it would undermine their independent status—a fear confirmed by FIFA.532 The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, opened for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. In 2003, rugby union was ranked the second most popular sport in the UK.526 The sport was created in Rugby School, Warwickshire, and the first rugby international took place on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland.533534England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy compete in the Six Nations Championship; the premier international tournament in the northern hemisphere. Sport governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.535 If any of the British teams or the Irish team beat the other three in a tournament, then it is awarded the Triple Crown.536 Cricket was invented in England, and its laws were established by Marylebone Cricket Club in 1788.537 The England cricket team, controlled by the England and Wales Cricket Board,538 is the only national team in the UK with Test status. Team members are drawn from the main county sides, and include both English and Welsh players. Cricket is distinct from football and rugby where Wales and England field separate national teams, although Wales had fielded its own team in the past.Irish and Scottish players have played for England because neither Scotland nor Ireland have Test status and have only recently started to play in One Day Internationals.539540 Scotland, England (and Wales), and Ireland (including Northern Ireland) have competed at the Cricket World Cup, with England reaching the finals on three occasions. There is a professional league championship in which clubs representing 17 English counties and 1 Welsh county compete.541 Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slamtennis tournament, is held inWimbledon, London every June and July. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England in the 1860s, before spreading around the world.542 The world's oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon championships, first occurred in 1877, and today the event takes place over two weeks in late June and early July.543 Thoroughbred racing, which originated under Charles II of England as the "sport of kings", is popular throughout the UK with world-famous races including the Grand National, the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival (including the Cheltenham Gold Cup). The UK has proved successful in the international sporting arena in rowing. The UK is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One (F1) are based in the UK, and the country has won more drivers' and constructors' titles than any other. The UK hosted the first F1 Grand Prix in 1950 atSilverstone, the current location of the British Grand Prix held each year in July.544 The UK hosts legs of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, World Rally Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. The premier national auto racing event is the British Touring Car Championship. Motorcycle road racing has a long tradition with races such as the Isle of Man TT and the North West 200. St Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf. The standard 18 hole golf course was created at St Andrews in 1764.545 Golf is the sixth-most popular sport, by participation, in the UK. Although The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course,546 the world's oldest golf course is actually Musselburgh Links' Old Golf Course.547 In 1764, the standard 18 hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes.545 The oldest golf tournament in the world, and the first major championship in golf, The Open Championship, is played annually on the weekend of the third Friday in July.548 Rugby league originated in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 1895 and is generally played in Northern England.549 A single 'Great Britain Lions' team had competed in the Rugby League World Cup and Test match games, but this changed in 2008 when England, Scotland and Ireland competed as separate nations.550 Great Britain is still retained as the full national team. Super League is the highest level of professional rugby league in the UK and Europe. It consists of 11 teams from Northern England, 1 from London, 1 from Wales and 1 from France.551 The 'Queensberry rules', the code of general rules in boxing, was named after John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberryin 1867, that formed the basis of modern boxing.552 Snooker is another of the UK's popular sporting exports, with the world championships held annually inSheffield.553 In Northern Ireland Gaelic football and hurling are popular team sports, both in terms of participation and spectating, and Irish expatriates in the UK and the US also play them.554 Shinty (or camanachd) is popular in the Scottish Highlands.555 Highland games are held in spring and summer in Scotland, celebrating Scottish and celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands.556 Symbols Main article: Symbols of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man The Statue of Britannia inPlymouth. Britannia is anational personification of the UK. The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack). It was created in 1606 by the superimposition of the Flag of England on the Flag of Scotland and updated in 1801 with the addition of Saint Patrick's Flag. Wales is not represented in the Union Flag, as Wales had been conquered and annexed to England prior to the formation of the United Kingdom. The possibility of redesigning the Union Flag to include representation of Wales has not been completely ruled out.557 The national anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the King", with "King" replaced with "Queen" in the lyrics whenever the monarch is a woman. Britannia is a national personification of the United Kingdom, originating from Roman Britain.558 Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding on the back of a lion. Since the height of the British Empire in the late 19th century, Britannia has often been associated with British maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!". Up until 2008, the lion symbol was depicted behind Britannia on the British fifty pence coin and on the back of the British ten pence coin. It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army. The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of the United Kingdom and has been associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.559 Category:Country